Report Cites Possible War Crimes in Israeli Hunt for Ambushed Soldier

It took Second Lt. Hadar Goldin’s comrades a few minutes to discover that he was missing after a burst of gunfire on the outskirts of Rafah, in southern Gaza, pierced a painstakingly negotiated truce that was barely an hour old.

The small Israeli force that rushed to the scene apparently soon realized that the body lying on the ground, alongside two dead Israeli soldiers, was that of a Hamas militant. The Israelis had been ambushed, and Lieutenant Goldin, 23, had been dragged down into a tunnel from which the militants had emerged.

At least 135 Palestinians were said to have been killed, mostly in the first hours after Lieutenant Goldin was abducted, as Israeli forces unleashed a barrage of artillery and airstrikes meant to prevent the militants from escaping with him deeper into the Palestinian coastal territory.